What Came After

by Nord, K. C.

  "Damn, Kaley, don't look him in the eyes," Nick said under his breath.

  I grimaced and looked back at Nick, "I also think that I saw him talking to Ethan one other time. It was dark at the time, so I can't be positive."

  Nick swore softly, "he has to be a plant."

  "What are we going to do?" I whispered.

  "Try and act normal so that he doesn't suspect that we're on to him. At this point, we don't know if there are others."

  "I'm afraid it's too late for that!" I jumped when I heard Ethan's voice behind us.

  I turned just in time to see Ethan bash Nick over the head with the butt of his gun before he collapsed unconscious at the end of my bed with a thin trickle of blood running from his forehead.

  "Nick," I gasped and reached for him, only to fall back against the pillows when Ethan shoved me away from him. "How did you get in here?"

  "Easy," he replied and nodded to the back of the room, where a previously hidden doorway now swung open. "All of these rooms have hidden doorways in case of emergency."

  I started to slide off the other side of the bed, but Ethan quickly reached out and snagged my wrist before I could even make it to the other side.

  "Time to go, Princess," he sneered and roughly pulled me from the bed.

  My legs tangled in the blanket, and I fell roughly onto the floor, "Let go of me! " I exclaimed and jerked my arm away from him.

  Ethan gave an impatient sigh and flung some clothes onto me, " Get dressed."

  "Turn around," I ordered.

  Ethan's lips compressed, "not gonna happen, Princess! You either get dressed right now, or I'm going to drag you out of here in that hospital gown. Either way, it makes no difference to me, but I doubt very much that you're going to want to be running around with your backside hanging out."

  "You really are a bastard," I snapped, and he just smiled like I'd given him the best compliment in the world.

  I saw Nick's eyelash flicker, and thinking that he might be getting ready to wake up, I quickly stepped in front of him before Ethan could notice and slowly started to dress, hoping to stall Ethan long enough for Nick to wake up. I was surprised to find that I was a lot less embarrassed than I might have expected. But when it comes right down to it, modesty isn't all that important when your life is at stake.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  After dressing as slowly as I possibly could, I sat down on the bed in front of Nick to put on my socks. He hadn't made any more movements, and I started to fear that he wouldn't wake up in time. By now, it was pretty evident that I was stalling, and Ethan was quickly beginning to lose patience.

  "Let's go," he called to guard outside and threw a pair of boots up on the bed beside me.

  "Where are you taking me?" I asked as I stood up to slip on my boots.

  Ethan glanced at me but didn't reply as he started giving orders to the guard, who then left through the secret door. I sat back down on the bed, and while his attention was occupied with the guard, I bent down ostensibly to check on Nick and quietly slid his handgun out of his shoulder holster, slipping it under my jacket and into the waistband of my jeans. He was still out cold but hopefully seemed to be otherwise ok. Ethan had hit him pretty hard, but Nick always seemed to have a pretty hard head.

  I was quickly running out of stalling tactics, but there was no way that I was going to walk out that door with Ethan. I've never been the helpless type just to sit around and wait for someone to rescue me; in this world and probably most anywhere, you're more likely to end up dead if you are.

  He let out a loud breath when he noticed me sitting there, "let's go!"

  I shook my head, "I'm not going anywhere with you until you answer my questions."

  Ethan leaned back against the wall," in case you haven't noticed, Princess, you're in no position to be making demands."

  I crossed my arms, ignoring his words, and determined to get some straight answers, "what is the purpose of this facility? Is he trying to cure or make new zombies?"

  Ethan gave a slight frown, and I could tell that something about my words had surprised him," You need to take the time to get to know him. Because all your grandpa wants is to help people."

  "Why does he want me so badly?"

  "Oh, come on, Kaley, he wants to get to know his granddaughter. There's nothing more sinister than that. He's just lonely, and can you blame him? His son completely cut him from his life!"

  "Did he experiment on me those two days while I was out?"

  "What!" Ethan gave a look of surprise followed by an expression on his face that I could only describe as calculating. "I can't help you there, Princess; you'll have to ask the old man yourself," he pushed off from the wall and reached out to grab my arm.

  I pulled away and stood up, drawing Nick's handgun as I did so, "set your weapon down on the floor and back away."

  "Whoa," Ethan said. "Let's talk about this."

  "There's nothing to talk about; now start moving!" I ordered, pointing the gun at his head.

  Moving slowly, he squatted down before placing the gun on the floor before standing back up.

  "Now, I want you to use your foot to slide the gun over to me," I ordered. "And don't try anything funny, or I'm going to have to shoot you."

  "Ok, ok, just take it easy," Ethan said and started to slide the gun across the floor when all hell broke loose. A glaringly loud alarm went off momentarily, drawing my attention, and Ethan taking advantage of my distraction, rushed me in an effort to wrest the gun from my hand. We fell back onto the bed, fighting desperately for control of the weapon. I was no match for him face-to-face, and I had to do something fast before he got the gun from me.

  Moving quickly, I slammed the heel of my hand into his nose, and Ethan grunted, clutching his bloody nose as he toppled over the side of the bed. I jumped off the bed and made my way around to where he'd fallen, but he was no longer there. Perplexed, I glanced around and saw him a few feet away, standing over by the secret doorway.

  I took a step toward him and coughed a little as I noticed that the outside corridor was starting to fill with smoke.

  "What the hell, Ethan!" I yelled, "did you set the building on fire?" And he had the audacity to laugh at me before he disappeared through the doorway. The smoke was starting to thicken by now, and I was seriously beginning to worry that we wouldn't make it out in time.

  Coughing, I ran back over to Nick and lightly shook him, but he was still out cold. I had to get us out of here and quickly, but how? Nick was over 6ft tall and pretty solidly built, there was no way that I would be able to carry him out on my own, but I had to try. Deciding quickly, I leaned over and grasped Nick under his arms and started dragging him toward the door that Ethan had taken. I wasn't sure how far we were from the main doors, but there was no way that I would leave him there to die. We were about halfway across the room when I heard it, a low hungry growl that was so primal it caused the hair on the back of my neck to rise. I froze and looked up to see him standing just inside the door. Of average height and dressed in scrubs, he had a forgettable face and looked like one of the many doctors working at the institute. That is until he took a step forward, and the light shining in from the hallway revealed that his neck was almost completely torn open. It must have just happened within the last few minutes because the blood on his neck and across the front of his shirt was still wet. I shuddered in revulsion and reached for my gun when he gave a couple of sniffs. So far, he hadn't noticed me there, but it would only be a matter of time before our scent reached him. It always seemed so strange to me that most of a zombie's senses were so dulled except for their sense of smell.

  He turned his head and stared into the darkened room and sniffed again. I saw the exact moment that our scent reached him, and he went from mildly interested to a raging beast in a matter of seconds. I raised my gun when a shot rang out from behind me, and the zombie dropped to the floor with a hole in the middle of his forehead. Turning swiftly, I came to my feet and saw Ethan standing
in the doorway behind me.

  "Ethan, I'm so touched that you came back for me," I said with a sarcastic look while keeping my gun trained on him.

  "Oh, Kaley, you are the biggest pain in the ass that I've ever met. But I've never met anyone who amuses me like you," he replied with a smirk.

  " And you're the first person I've met who makes me want to shoot him every time he opens his mouth," I replied.

  Ethan grinned, " as flattering as that is, we need to get out of here before this whole place goes up in flames."

  "Help me with Nick," I said.

  Ethan's lips thinned with distaste, but he bent over and lifted Nick in a fireman's lift over his shoulders. "We cut it a little close, but there should still be time," he muttered under his breath as we hurried down a deserted and seemingly endless corridor that hadn't as yet filled with smoke.

  "Where are we going?" I asked, following closely at his heels.

  "We just need to get to one of the escape tunnels, and then we'll be in the free and clear," he replied.

  We spent the next few minutes traversing a confusing and seemingly never-ending maze of corridors that left me hopelessly lost. Just when I was about to lose patience with Ethan and demand to know if he was taking me in circles, he stepped through a door leading to a stairwell and down one flight of stairs before walking out into a small lounge area.

  "Damn, I need to take a break," he groaned, leaving Nick on the floor before collapsing into a chair.

  "What about the fire?" I asked, concerned that stopping might not be a good idea.

  Ethan shrugged and threw me a can of purified water from his backpack; we're far enough underground that it'll take a while before it reaches us. Besides, I can't go much further lugging that dead weight around without a rest."

  "Well, maybe you shouldn't have hit him so hard in the first place!" I snapped and leaned over to check on Nick, who finally seemed to be coming around.

  Ethan cocked one eye open from where he was leaning his head back against the wall. " Well, Princess, I didn't exactly plan on taking him with us."

  "If you call me Princess one more time, I just might have to shoot you," I grumbled. "It's not as if I don't already owe you for almost killing me."

  "About that," Ethan said with a look that on anyone else would have been contrite. "I guess I overreacted a little."

  "No, overreacted would have been if you had yelled at me. Almost killing someone is a lot more serious than overreacting."

  "Yeah, sorry about that," he said with a bored look and closed his eyes.

  Nick groaned and opened his eyes, looking around with a frown as if confused by his surroundings.

  "Try not to move too quickly; it will only make you dizzy," I advised and supported his shoulders while he took a drink of water before he laid back with his eyes closed and his head in my lap.

  "What happened?" He mumbled.

  "You don't remember," I asked, rubbing his brow.

  "Not really. The last thing that I remember was talking to you and then nothing."

  "Ethan hit you on the head; as hard as he hit you, I wouldn't be surprised if you have a concussion."

  Nick's eyes flew open, "what the hell!"

  "He also set the building on fire," I added helpfully.

  "That sneaky bastard!" Nick growled and quickly stood up only to sway dizzily from the sudden movement, "I'm going to kill him!"

  "Somebody needs to," I agreed and put my arm around his waist and helped him to a chair before he fell over. "But you might have to find him first," I added, noticing that Ethan's chair was now empty.

  "Someone like Ethan always knows where the closest exit is."

  "I think that you're right about that," I agreed. "But in the meantime, if you're up to it, we should probably get out of here."

  "I'm fine," Nick said and tried to stand on his own, only to sway again.

  I quickly slid my arm around his waist again, "just lean on me for a while and give me a chance to pay you back for all the times that you helped me out."

  Nick muttered something, I couldn't quite make out what he said, but from his tone, I concluded that it was probably best that I didn't.

  "You know," I said, trying with difficulty to disguise a teasing grin. "Even tough guys need help every now and then."

  "You seem way too happy to see me laid up," Nick said with a disgusted look.

  I laughed out loud and gave his waist a little squeeze, "I know; why don't we talk about how much we hate Ethan and all the different ways that we want to kill him."

  Nick gave a half-smile before changing the subject, "Did anything of note happen after he knocked me out?"

  "Not really," I replied and paused for a minute."Have you ever felt that your life is being orchestrated?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Lately, I'm starting to question everything about my life. Everything that's happened ever since we met Ethan and maybe even before that. I feel like a pawn in someone's game. A game where I don't know the rules."

  Nick frowned, "Try not to let him get into your head, Ethan is malicious and manipulative, but I doubt that he's all that smart."

  "Don't underestimate him," I replied. "He's cunning, which is a whole different type of intelligence. But I'm actually talking about my grandfather more than Ethan."

  Nick nodded, trying to suppress a cough, "You might be right about your grandfather. But I do think that your description of Ethan is spot on."

  Damn Ethan! I cursed under my breath. Where is that escape tunnel? Even though I was trying to act cheerful, I'd been smelling smoke for some time now and was starting to worry that we wouldn't find the tunnel in time. And though he hadn't said anything, I could tell from the look on his face that Nick was also aware of the gravity of our situation. We picked up the pace a little as the smoke started to get thicker. My eyes were beginning to sting and water, and we were both now coughing. Still, I felt a little better as I noticed that Nick seemed to move more easily the longer we walked; he was still a little pale but appeared to be a lot more alert.

  "I think that might be one of the tunnels, "I said, stopping to cough when we noticed a plain gray door set in the wall a few feet ahead.

  "It's worth a try," Nick, who was now walking on his own, replied as he pulled the door open to reveal a dimly lit tunnel that had been roughly cut out of the hard rocky landscape.

  "The air seems fresher," I remarked, letting the door close behind me as I followed him out into the tunnel. The ceiling was low and coated with jagged rocks, so Nick had to stoop a little as we walked, but at 5ft6, I had no problem standing upright.

  After about fifteen minutes of walking, a dim light became visible at the end of the tunnel, and we quickened our pace to emerge into the cool night air. It was a dark moonless night, but the hill behind us was lit up with a reddish-orange glow that extended well up into the sky from the burning building. Even though we were at least a mile away, you could still hear the crackle of the flames in the still night air.

  "Why would he do that?" I whispered.

  "To get rid of the evidence. Your grandfather was up to some pretty weird stuff in that facility."

  I stopped and stared at him, "I've had my suspicions, but do you have actual proof?"

  "Some," Nick, always a man of few words, replied and put one hand on my back to keep me moving.

  Thinking that he might still be a little unsteady on his feet, I slid my arm around his waist to give him a little support.

  "Umm, Kaley, I can walk on my own," he said after a minute.

  "Really, because it seemed like you might need a little support," I replied with a smirk.

  "That was just to keep you moving because if you stop every time we start talking, we're never going to get anywhere."

  And as if to prove him right, I stopped to glare at him. He stared back at me, keeping his face completely serious; then, I noticed the sparkle in his blue eyes and the slight upward tip of his full lips. So I did the next best thing t
o punching him; I fisted one hand in his shirt, stood on my toes, and gave him the kiss of a lifetime. And after a second of surprise, he gave it right back to me, with one hand tangled in my wild unbrushed ginger hair and the other anchored around my waist; he pulled me off my feet and gave me the type of kiss that every girl dreams of receiving. The kind of kiss that stops the earth, if for only a second. Then he gave me a peck on the forehead before wrapping his arm around my waist as we started walking back towards the institute.

  Seconds later, a happily barking Moose found us. Right at this moment in time, I was probably the happiest I'd ever been in a very long time. I'd found my brother, my whole family was back together again, and I had Nick. Of course, there was still a lot of stuff to deal with, like all of the secrets and lies that I'd been fed my whole life. My family had a lot to answer for; I just hoped that they could finally see me as an adult and give me the answers I deserved. And I also needed to find my best friend. It wasn't like Norah to disappear like that. But for today, I just wanted to enjoy being happy.